MT. 42.] TO W. J. HOOKER. 401 



one way more than another. The cauline leaves all 



*/ 



tend to become vertical (as in several other Compo- 

 sitae), but present neither face nor edge north. 



But three years ago Lapham of Wisconsin wrote 

 me that, though the plant near Milwaukee showed no 

 " polarity ' (and so he never believed in it), yet on 

 going farther west, on the prairies, he found it did 

 generally turn all to the north there. 



If I remember aright, though, he said the surfaces 

 of the leaf look north and south. You say the edges? 

 How is this ? Compare notes with Lapham. . . . 



What do you think I am about now ? Revising gen- 

 era of MyrtaceaB for Exploring Expedition collection. 



In these exotic orders I frequently find the genera 

 so at loose ends that I cannot make the plants of our 

 collection lie comfortably till I have given the genera 

 a good shaking up. I should be tempted to do much 

 more of this if I could work at Hooker's, or in Paris. 

 It is quite as well not, as it would cost no end of 

 time. . . . 



I have found some Fouquiera seedlings up in the 

 Garden. I am right about it ; not Torrey. The leaf 

 is not axillary and its petiole inclosed in the spine ; 

 but the spine is a hardened inferior portion of the 

 petiole that persists, and from which the rest falls 

 away clean. . . . 



TO W. J. HOOKER. 



CAMBRIDGE, August 3, 1853. 



MY DEAR SIR WILLIAM, I will endeavor to get 

 some account of Shakerdom for you. They are a 

 queer people indeed. 



Manilla paper l is made of old manilla rope, which 



1 Dr. Gray sent to Kew manilla paper for the genus covers in the 

 herbarium. 



